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Isn’t it ironic? You’re in your car waiting to pull through the drive through window at your local Walgreens and what are you there to get? Weight loss medicine? Pills for high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Yes, there are some percentage of people who have an injury or are handicapped and walking into the pharmacy to pick up their medication is difficult. However, a large percentage of people who are waiting in the drive through line are just being lazy.

As the owner of a home care agency who deals (primarily) with the elderly, I have a front row seat to see what is happening to our minds and bodies as we age. And I keep up with the research. I wonder how many of these same people would still be going through the drive thru’s if they knew what I know and could see what I see on a daily basis.

There is not much of a debate any longer. Staying active and exercising is the best and most protective medicine that we can give our brains as we get older. Recently, there have been a few studies where the subjects have shown improvement in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) when they exercised on a regular basis. What is so important about this is that of those that have MCI, about 15% are expected to develop Alzheimer’s. So when research shows that older adults who remain active experience almost a 40% reduction in getting MCI, it’s important to take note. What this research teaches us is the importance of focusing on prevention when it comes to neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and to fight them sooner rather than later.

When someone is exposed to long term physical and mental stress, they suffer from something called oxidative stress. And suffering from oxidative stress makes the brain more susceptible to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, other forms of dementia and Parkinson’s.

Getting regular aerobic exercise at least 5 days per week can actually shield the brain from this stress. Strength training is important too. Recently researchers assessed the strength of about 1000 dementia free people aged 54 to 100. They followed the group for 4 years noting the strength of nine major muscle groups. Those who ranked in the top ten percent for strength had a whopping 61% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s than the lowest 10%!

Do you need more convincing about the importance of exercise? Well, in a 2008 study published in the journal Neurology, researchers measured the midsections of 6,500 adults in middle age during the 1960s and 1970s and then followed up with them 36 years later. The people who had the largest midsections in their 40s were three times more likely to have developed dementia when compared to those with the least amount of fat around the middle.

In the aging of a normal brain, brain function will decline due to blockages of bloody supply, the loss of neuronal connections and a decline in nerve-signaling chemicals. It had been believed that an aging brain was incapable of generating new brain cells. But that is not actually the case as shown by studies conducted by Fred Gage, PhD and colleagues at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Theses studies show that with more physical exercise, you can actually grow your brain cells more, have your brain cells live longer and that your brain cells can better connect with other cells. If you were to walk briskly for 40 minutes four time each week, you would increase the flow of blood to the regions of your brain that can grow new brain cells. Dr. Gage has concluded that much of the brain’s decline that we believe is inevitable because of the aging process is really a result of not getting enough exercise.

Hopefully this will give you reason to pause the next time you start to pull into the Walgreen’s drive thru. Next time I challenge you to park at the far end of the lot and walk in to get your medicine. Who knows, if you keep up that mindset, one day you may not even need that prescription!

Theanna Zika founded Saint Louis senior in-home care company, Heavenly Helpers, in 2004. She shares tips, strategies and advice about caring for seniors that she has learned over the years on the blog at her company’s website. The site also features a helpful list of Saint Louis senior resources for seniors and their families in the Saint Louis Metro area.

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[ad#250x250]Budgeting for retirement is a great idea for your future. This is a wonderful time in your life and you don’t want to spend your retirement being worried about bills and how you will pay them. Bills will be here for all our lives and will intact increase the older you get. With age comes health problems. You need a plan to pay for all your bills.

Making a budget for saving towards your retirement is important. You should ask a couple questions of yourself. How much money do I make? What are the things I spend my money on? Can I cut some of my expenses? When you get the answers to these questions you need to find a way to save money every month. How much money do you.

If you can cut out any expenses every month it could be helpful. Once you cut out an unnecessary expense you can add the money from it to your retirement fund. It is good to add money as often as you possibly can. Any extra savings is a great start to your nest egg.

If your employer has a retirement plan like a 401K you might want to learn more about it. 401k plans are a wonderful way for saving towards retirement. You can have the company withdraw a certain amount of money from each pay check to add to the 401k plan. Most companies will match the amount you put in your plan.

You need to figure out the amount of money you want to save for retirement. After you figure out the amount of money you will need every month in order to reach that goal you will want to budget that amount into your monthly expenses. Adding a specific amount of money into your savings will help you reach your goal.

Do not let anything keep your from putting that money into your savings every month. Having your money automatically put into your savings is a great idea. You can have it arranged where the payroll department pulls out of your check a predetermined amount to put into your savings plan and you will never even miss the money.

You should try making a budget that can be easy to stick with. You will have a hard time sticking to a budget that is unrealistic. You will want to have a nice nest egg built up before retirement so that you will be able to actually enjoy it.

For more information on how Long Term Care Insurance can help prepare us as we age. Also you can get a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.[ad#Inpost]

The sooner you start to save for your retirement the more you will accumulate over the years towards your retirement nest egg. Retirement can be a great time in your life if you are not worrying over money problems the whole time. We spend many years making money to pay our bills and once it comes time to retire we do not want to be worrying over bills any longer.

Our bills will not disappear when we retire. They will actually seem to increase when we retire because of problems that come with aging. You will want to set realistic goals for saving a nest egg. You should be honest to yourself when it comes time to set your saving goals. After retirement how do you plan to live?

A really good way to help you save towards your nest egg is with a 401K plan. Your company will actually match what you put into the plan. On every pay day a preset amount will go towards your 401K plan which your company will then match and add to it. Saving money with a 401K plan is an easy way to grow a nest egg.

Like a 401K plan an IRA will give you a large tax break. There are two types of IRA you can get. There is a traditional IRA which you will only pay taxes on when you take out a withdrawal. The Roth IRA will not require any payments for taxes when you withdraw from it.

Some retired people will work part time to help with extra money and because they want to stay busy. If you have spent many years working it can be hard to find some way to keep busy when you are not working any more. This is hard for some people to handle.

When you have a big nest egg it helps with easing your worries. Facing your future without a nest egg can be a very scary thing to do if you have no steady income. Preparing well in advance will help to eliminate any feats you may have. You need to take time to think of your future when you retire.

For more information on how Long Term Care Insurance can help prepare us as we age. Also you can get a long term care insurance quote. We represent 20 of the top LTCi providers. This gives you tremendous options.[ad#Inpost]